How to ‘gamify’ your workout, according to behavioral scientists
How to avoid being tracked through your email, how tree rings helped identify a Rhode Island whaler lost at sea, and more.
Lex Ashcroft reads
Social Media Use: Distancing, Not Addiction? Excessive online activity or phone use is often referred to as addiction rather than dissociation, which is part of healthy cognitive function. In a recent study, researchers found that about half of the participants became dislodged while using an app over the course of a month. writing for The conversation, study author Amanda Baughan explains how creative and informed design can help reduce dissociation and describes some of the more effective interventions her team has developed.
You will be tracked via your email. Here’s how to stop it. By now, most of us are familiar with the various ways companies track our online activities. However, it may be surprising to find out how much information can be gleaned from opening a marketing newsletter that you actually signed up for, including where you opened the email and what type of device you were using. writing for voxSara Morrison explains why you should consider using services to make your email more private, such as B. Email encryption, protected browsers, email aliases and a special (free) feature for iPhone users.
Allie Rudin reads
According to behavioral scientists, you can “gamify” your workouts. Can sports feel more like a video game? According to scientists who study behavior, it can — and if we want to encourage healthy exercise habits, it should. Writing for NPR’s “Life Kit,” Vincent Acovino and Audrey Nguyen explore the world of “fitness gamification,” in which the addictive elements of a video game—like points, levels, and competition—are applied to physical activity. For those looking to use this motivation in their own fitness routines, Acovino and Nguyen offer four expert-backed strategies to start gamifying your workouts.
How tree rings helped identify a Rhode Island whaler lost at sea. Dendochronologists, or tree ring experts, are stepping into the scientific limelight because they are using wood analysis to solve a mystery that is over a hundred years old. When the remains of a shipwreck were found off the coast of Patagonia in 2004, scholars suspected it belonged to a whaling ship that disappeared in 1858, but have yet to confirm it. As April Rubin explained for the New York TimesTree rings in the logs were analyzed like a fingerprint to provide the evidence that supported anthropologists’ and marine archaeologists’ studies of the shipwreck and whaling activities in South America.